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Saturday, November 26, 2016

It's almost time for the annual CBC Radio Sounds of the Season show here in Toronto. Each year I make a limited number of linocut prints and send them out to donors who give more than $100 to the Daily Bread Food Bank (the money goes to food banks across the province).

I've done a new version of this year's print (there's a sloppy moon on the website which I have determined was not up to CBC standards)

The new idea? A star. A beacon of hope and light in a dark world... no matter which holiday you keep (or don't) this time of year.

Monday, October 17, 2016

I'm never sure if anyone ever reads the Acknowledgements section at the end of my books (or any books) but I always try to make mine serve some kind of purpose. In Neil Flambé #5 I wrote an essay about what it takes to write a book.

In MINRS I tried to lay out my love for space. And in MINRS2, as promised, I elaborated on that. So, in case you haven't flipped to that page in the book yet, here is the text (with links).

Before getting to the space-themed thanks
(which I promised at the end of MINRs) I need to thank my fellow authors on
#AdvenTOUR 2015 – Margaret Peterson Haddix, Kevin Sands and Lisa McMann.
Launching MINRs with them was an absolute pleasure… and I’m going to steal
stuff from all of them for my future books.

We still meet up, when possible, for proper
meals and great conversation…. and someday we might get KS to eat vegetables.

Okay, onto some more spaced-out thanks!

It was an omission in the original book to
not recognize my debt to the late Walter M. Miller Jr. – author of amazing
novels such as A Canticle for Leibowitz,
and numerous great short stories about the moral choices humans will have to
make as we head out to space.

I can still smell the musty aroma of the
copy of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian
Chronicles that I discovered in my parent’s bookcase when I was 10.

To Christa
Van Laerhoven of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Physics who kindly read
my book and answered my (many) questions about exo-planets, goldilocks zones,
and much more. The Dunlap Institute at UofT is an amazing group, and their
Astronomy on Tap events are a blast!

Space:
1999 was another TV show that was hugely
influential when I was a knee-high stargazer. I even made a model of the Eagle
Transporter (which is sort of the idea for the transport ship in this book). Then I melted holes in it with a hot pin to
look like places where debris had pierced the hull. Good times.

Some more TV gold… Lost in Space, and The
Jetsons. Hmmm.. I wonder if I’d spent less time watching TV and more time
writing I might have actually been published before I was 30? Or, then again,
maybe not. Inspiration comes from all over the place… so be open to it.

Silent
Running was a movie I must have watched a thousand
times as a kid… along with The Day the
Earth Stood Still, Alien (which
will get some cheeky nods in MINRs3), Blade
Runner….

And can everyone please thank J.J. Abrams
for cleansing the palate of the Star Wars prequels… The Force Awakens isn’t perfect, but it’s a great Star Wars flick.

To everyone who liked MINRs, and invited me
to their schools or libraries (in person or over technology) to talk about it,
a HUGE THANKS! The dedication at the front of this book is heartfelt.

And to the many booksellers who have
welcomed me and hand-sold my books, I cannot say thanks enough. Special nod to
Erin Grittani at Mabel’s Fables, an early champion on the book. I’ll buy you
twenty $1 bottles of wine the next time we have a party. Also a nod to Evil Genius Lee Rosevere. His ethereal music was the soundtrack to writing this book.

Thanks to Ruta Rimas for edits that make
the books better. Thanks again to Dominic Harmon who designed AN AWESOME cover
and Sonia Chaghatzbanian who designed the whole package.

And copyeditor Kaitlin Severini, who picked over the book with a fine-toothed pencil.

And, of course, my books are always (I
hope) about more than just adventure and space travel.

There are great organizations that are
working today to make sure that
mining practices in the future are better for everyone.

Who is this goof?

I'm an illustrator, writer and broadcaster based in Toronto.
MINRs1 is out - a space adventure story.
It was named a 2015 CLA Honour Book! It's also nominated for the Tome Society Award in Georgia.
MINRs2 will be released in October 2016.
My other series, The Neil Flambé capers has 6 books. Neil Flambé and the Duel in the Desert the latest.
Neil Flambe and the Marco Polo Murders won the 2011 Silver Birch award for Fiction.
My new picture book - Super Duper Monster Viewer is also out.
GREAT, a book with the Wayne Gretzky Foundation will be published in September.
Splinters was published in 2010.
I've also been a broadcaster with CBC Radio in Canada for years and years (although I'm originally from Western New York... GO SABRES AND GO BILLS!)
Take a look at some of the work I've done for clients and myself. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.
Just type in… sylvesterartwork at gmail dot com.

The Neil Flambé Capers are wowing the critics!

Book 3 "...is a funny book, chock full of action, slapstick, puns and eccentrics. Fans of the first two will eat it up." -Kirkus Reviews

“Good fun.” – Gordon Ramsay

"over-the-top fun" - Booklist

“Amusing… Readers will wish they could sample his Pommes de terre a la Flambé.” – Publishers Weekly

**** Highly Recommended. “A giggle from beginning to end”

– CM Magazine

Recommended – “Makes the reader look forward to the next book in the series.” – Canadian Children’s Booknews

Recommended - “Easily as entertaining as Ratatouille” - Canadian Living

“Charming.” – The Edmonton Journal

“Neil Flambé and the Marco Polo Murders is a delightful read. You learn a lot about the foods found along the Silk Road, but the history slides down easily with the story. Kevin Sylvester has done a great job.” – bookshigal.com

“Any adult who picks it up will find chuckles and belly laughs on every page.” - thebusypeppermill.com